In this night, I don't know how many people died, how many people were missing, anyway, by dawn, there were less than 6,000 people under Liu Fang, and of course, there were people who were crossing the river to rush here.

Liu Fang firmly believed that at least more than 10,000 soldiers, under his heroic inspiration, fought bloody battles with the Tartars and died.

After cleaning the battlefield, there were definitely no more than 2,000 Han corpses found around the north gate.

In the end, when it was reported to Wu Zhengna, when Liu Fang wanted to ask for merit for the sacrifice of the soldiers, Wu Zheng first smiled, and then laughed nonstop.

Everyone around Wu Zheng laughed, only Liu Fang didn't smile, he was stunned at that time.

However, Wu Zheng did not treat Liu Fang badly, and immediately commented that Liu Fang and Hengyang Wei were the first contributors to the recovery of Fengyang City, and when the war ended, they would be rewarded according to their merits.

……。

In fact, there was a lot of controversy within the Northern Expeditionary Army about this night battle.

There are two merits of Hengyangwei, one is the attack that night, the sound produced woke up Chi Erhan and Li Guo, who were not aware of the enemy's retreat at that time, which made Chi Erhan and Li Guo temporarily organize men and horses to attack the city, and as a result, the last infantry of the Qing army in the city of nearly 1,000 people was intercepted in the city, and Hengyangwei was the first to block the meritorious service of the Qing soldiers retreating from east to west in the center of the city.

Second, due to the "unusual" attack of Hengyangwei, part of the grain transport team that Azig could have calmly transferred was intercepted, and the intercepted grain transport team transported not only grain, but also valuable things looted by the Qing army in the city and Fengyang Mansion.

And there are quite a few amounts, not counting utensils, jewelry, etc., but the total amount of gold and silver alone is not less than 200,000 taels.

All the controversy is mainly entangled in the number of "casualties" of Hengyangwei that night, and the extent of the role that Hengyangwei played in the siege of the city in the whole battle.

Obviously, when Liu put down the order to attack, the main force of the Qing army in the city should have begun to withdraw, which can be proved from the sporadic resistance encountered by Chi Erhan and Li Guo who led the army to break through the east and south gates successively, and entered the city.

Especially on the wall of the north gate, the enemy defenders will definitely not exceed six hundred.

But it was these 600 people who dealt a great blow to Liu Fang's troops, who were "besieging the city" that night, causing nearly 2,000 casualties.

In other words, even if Hengyangwei stood still at that time and let the Qing army kill him, with the number of 600 people, I am afraid it would be difficult to easily kill nearly 10,000 people in less than half an hour, and he would have to destroy the corpses.

And Fengyang City, after nearly three months of fierce fighting, the city wall itself is full of holes, and when the defenders are on intensive alert, there are indeed not many gaps to drill.

But once the main force of the defenders retreats, then, in fact, where can not enter the city?

Then after Hengyangwei rushed into the city (until after the war, no one could say whether Hengyangwei attacked the city, or how he attacked the city or by what channel), he should not encounter frontal resistance from the enemy in the city.

There are dissenters, almost all of them question this, at that time, Hengyang Wei was near the city wall, and after encountering the desperate resistance of the six hundred defenders on the city wall, a partial rout had occurred, but it was difficult to find it because of the night, and it was impossible to sacrifice all the bloody battles as Liu Fang said.

To put it simply, it was this rabble that dispersed in a hurry, and then there were many places where the city wall collapsed, and the scattered people fled in all directions, submerged into the homes of ordinary people or fled back to their places of origin, these people were originally from Fengyang Mansion, so there was a situation where the body could not be found.

And the thousands of Hengyang guards who blocked the last Qing army were the real Hengyang guards, that is, the team that Liu Fang brought out in the old county before, including more than a dozen veterans "gifted" to Liu Fang by Chi Erhan.

Many generals told Wu Zheng that this kind of precedent of lying and overreporting military exploits cannot be opened.

But Liu Fang resolutely disagreed with this analysis, and he stubbornly determined that it was impossible for his army to be defeated, and that Hengyangwei was the first to attack the city and intercept the last Qing army, which is a fact that cannot be erased.

In the end, Wu Zhengli overrode public opinion, made a final conclusion for the battle of Fengyang City, assessed Hengyangwei as the first merit, and notified the world in the name of the general.

Hengyangwei was given the official establishment, entered the Northern Expeditionary Army sequence, and rewarded the "registered" soldiers, however, in the end, except for the army that intercepted the Qing soldiers in the city and the family members who were killed and injured around the North Gate, no one came to claim the reward, and the number of recipients was less than 10,000, compared with the scale of more than 20,000 people when Liu Fang led the army to cross the river, it was less than half.

Song An asked Wu Zheng privately at that time, why did the young master pretend not to see such an obvious "case"?

Wu Zheng glanced at Song An at that time, and asked rhetorically: "If you were in Liu Fang's situation at that time, you would dare to launch a strong attack on a fortified city with at least 30,000 or 40,000 defenders with such a people's army?" ”

Song An shook his head, "I won't...... Not because I'm afraid of death, but because ...... I don't dare let so many innocent people ...... Sacrifice in vain. ”

Wu Zheng nodded and said, "That's right...... The ignorant are fearless! Besides, if the people can rush to Fengyang City according to the order, this is enough, it is better than them helping the Qing army rush to our army...... The people's hearts should be obedient and irreversible! ”

After pondering, Song An asked, "What does the young master mean...... Use this incident to inspire the people of Jiangbei to dare to rebel against the Tartars? ”

Wu Zheng was stunned for a moment, and then smiled: "No...... It's not all ...... I was just thinking that as long as the people of Jiangbei made a move against the Qing army, it would be equivalent to standing on our side....... ”

Song An was stunned, why did this sound so awkward, as if he had heard it...... The people were so awkward that they got on a thief ship.

But Song An still understood, it turned out that the young master was not ignorant, but deliberate.

I am worried that I don't have the time and energy to change the deep-rooted antipathy of the people in Jiangbei to the Ming Army, and now it's okay, the people have come to the side of the Northern Expeditionary Army, of course, this is still the credit of Liu Yishou.

In the subsequent Northern Expedition, the people of Fengyang Mansion and the surrounding provinces not only provided huge materials for the Northern Expedition, but also took the initiative to send tens of thousands of children into the Northern Expedition.

Of course, that's another story.

……。

Compared with the smooth progress of the battle situation in Fengyang Mansion, Lu Zhiyu suffered heavy losses in the process of pursuing Yue Le and E Shuo.

This should not have happened, Wu Zheng had actually decided to make a truce at this time, but the transmission of military orders at this time was indeed very slow, especially for long-distance transmission, which had to be transmitted by manpower.

The time difference of only half a day made Lu Zhiyu rashly march, and suffered an ambush from the enemy in Jiacang Town, south of Rizhao.

Sure enough, if it wasn't for Shen Zhiyuan's cavalry and Qian Qiaogong's cavalry to rush to the battlefield from the west and south in time, then Wu Songwei's 3,000 forwards would have to be wiped out, but Rao was like this, and Lu Zhiyu also lost nearly 2,000 people.

This made Lu Zhiyu be relegated to the rank of deputy commander and appointed as an acting commander.